Avast VPN Causing Memory Leak (non-paged pool)

[Marty2332]

Hi, i noticed my computer running slowly lately and checked task manager. My non-paged pool memory was 29gb (i have 32gb ram).

Used poolmon, sorted by bytes, and at the top of the list was TAPN and the related driver was aswTap.sys (TAP-Windows virtual network driver). AVAST Software is shown as the name of the signer.

My second highest usage was WFP NDIS 6.30 lightweight filter driver wfplwfs.sys which i'm unsure is related to the vpn.

Is Avast aware of this issue? Seems to happen when downloading.

[Endt]

Dear Marty2332,

Sorry to hear that, sadly we were not able to reproduce your issue. Could you give us some hints? For how long was the VPN turned on? Did you download big amount of data (gigs)? Could you send me your log folder (C:\ProgramData\Avast Software\Secureline\Logs - you will need to copy the folder somewhere else and then zip it). Ideally if you could create process dump when your Secureline becomes hungry?

Thank you again,
B.

[Marty2332]

Hi, thanks for checking this.

I think i've discovered what the cause of the memory leak is.

I had IPv6 unchecked in the properties of my main network adapter (not the Avast adapter). When i enabled the IPv6 option again, i'm not experiencing the memory leak anymore!

Please note that i got this recommendation after looking up how to fix "slow resolving host" where someone suggested doing this in addition to disabling SmartNameResolution.

[Marty2332]

Hi again, looks like the problem has returned.

So last night after enabling IPv6 in my network adapter i restarted the computer and downloaded a 16gb file.

There was no increase in non-paged pool memory. It remained about 300mb.

I then downloaded the same file, and again no increase in non-paged pool.

Put my computer to sleep, then the following morning i downloaded a 17gb file. Again, no increase in non-paged pool.

My computer has been on all day and this evening i downloaded two 8gb files, and nonticed my non-paged pool increased to 1.9gb and is slowly increasing in size (now 2.1gb) (was 1.5gb when i started typing up this report).

So the issue seems to occur when the computer has been running for some time.

The vpn shows it's been connected for 1h36min, although, it may have reconnected before that as computer has been on all day.

I have attached some screenshots.

For the dump files, i have added them to my onedrive which you can see here as they exceed the maximum upload size.

I have also had to upload the logs to onedrive as when i tried posting this message it said the zip was not an allowed file extension.

{url removed}
Could you please remove that url from my post once you have accessed the files.

Thanks

[Endt]

Hello Marty2332,

I have forwarded the issue again and got the files from your drive.

Enjoy the weekend,
B.

[Marty2332]

Hi Endt,

There was an update to my SecureLine VPN recently.

Do you know if that update was meant to address the issue i reported? As i'm still experiencing the memory leak.

Thanks

[Endt]

Hello Marty2332,

I can see that the bug is still being investigated, as the devs say, that they can not see anything in the dump (would need full memory dump). Also, they ask for the version of your client and driver.

Cheers,
B.

[Marty2332]

Hi, thanks for keeping me updated on this issue.

Do you need the full memory dump when the problem has occurred, or does this dump include historical data?

I've decided to try running without the vpn for a few days to see if my non-paged still increases, as i noticed (with vpn on) my non-paged was getting slowly bigger even with just regular web browsing & youtube videos and not downloading large files.

I am using the latest version of Avast

Avast Internet Security
19.5.2378 (build 19.5.4444.503)

Securline
5.3.458


Thanks

[keithb00]

I'm having a similar issue.  I had to go a little further than poolmon to figure it out.  Using WPA, I'm seeing issues with TAPN and  WFP NDIS 6.30 lightweight filter driver wfplwfs.sys as well.  I couldn't get any specifics from TAPN (no driver is listed).  It appears Wl2n may also be involved, which also uses wfplwfs.sys (WFP NDIS), asw* libraries, and openvpn.  I have 16 gb of RAM and slowly creep up to 100% memory usage while using Secureline VPN

[Marty2332]

Yes, Avast VPN has problem with memory leak that hasn't been fixed yet. I will be changing my antivirus + vpn when my subscription runs out. Shame to go, as I've been with Avast for many years.